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Sunday, August 26, 2007

Unsavory Grace

When I first heard about the TNT show "Saving Grace," I was intrigued. I love Holly Hunter as an actress, and the show is set in Oklahoma City.

I'm watching, but it is getting more unbelievable and annoying. Okay, not that the premise of an angel appearing out of nowhere is believable neccessarily. But it's the show's portrayal of Oklahoma and Oklahoma City that's really disturbing.

The show is not filmed in OKC. That's clear to anyone who is from the area. And, then there's the fact that the show depicts Oklahomans in two ways: Well, first all Okies are hicks according to this show. And they are either 1. hard-drinking alcoholics with lots of baggage or 2. Pious church-going people with lots of baggage.

And, notice that OKC is also depicted as a cow town. Stockyards, yes, there are those in OKC. But heaven forbid some network actually admit there's an urban area in Oklahoma. That there's culture outside of the "Cowboy Hall of Fame." Yes, it's still called that on the show. I guess research isn't part of the script writer's job.

And though HH has always been one of my favorite actresses, I really don't want to see her have sex each and every show. Geez.

I had high hopes for this show. Not so much anymore.

3 comments:

Gina said...

Ugh. I remember a Tom Selleck show set in Denver during the late '90s, while I was living there. He played an ad exec, I think.

Anyway, in an early episode, he's sitting in his high-rise office when a blimp suddenly flies past. Switchboards went nuts at the local affiliate and at the network's headquarters in New York.

Why? Blimps can't fly in the Mile High City. The air is too thin. Obviously, no one thought about altitude while shooting on a California set.

The show didn't last long, much to the delight of Denverites.

Kellyology said...

"And they are either 1. hard-drinking alcoholics with lots of baggage or 2. Pious church-going people with lots of baggage." Yeah and what, that's not right? JUST KIDDING!lol

I watched last week because of a friend's suggestion. I can't decided if I like it or not. I think I'll give it some more time.

Anonymous said...

Hey, C,

We're watching because we live in Washington now and we love anything to do with Oklahoma. Thus, we haven't been annoyed with the legit things you mentioned cuz we're going, "Yea! An Oklahoma thing!"

Tonight we saw the episode where "Pody Pope" brought out some sweet tea. What did they do? Just go through the Oklahoman archive for the past 10 years and dredge up tidbits?

Oklahoma isn't about "sweet tea," although Southern transplant Jay Grelen was big on it in his lame columns.

K rolled her eyes when a character said "No worries." Okies say, "No problem." They say "No worries" up here and, possibly, in California.

The main actors have tolerable accents, but some of the guest actors playing Okies are way too thick.

But we're all being a little myopic. These people write for a national audience. Was "Dallas" a good reflection of Texas in the 80s?